BNP headquarters, chief Khaleda Zia besieged

DHAKA, Jan. 4 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chief Khaleda Zia has remained cordoned off inside her office since Saturday night.

Police have also locked down the BNP’s headquarters after searching it. Detectives arrested BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at the party headquarters during the search.

Tensions are running high across Bangladesh as the country’s political situation is once again heating up centering on the 1st anniversary of Jan. 5 parliamentary elections, which 21 parties including ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s BNParty boycotted.

A year on, the BNP-led alliance now wants to observe Jan. 5 as “Democracy Killing Day” and hold a grand rally in the capital, while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Bangladesh Awami League party is all set to celebrate it as “Victory Day for Democracy”, raising among the general masses the spectre of a return of wide spread violence in capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.